On 26-10-2013 18:43, Brad Jorsch (Anomie) wrote:
I came across Gerrit change 79948[1] today, which makes "VectorBeta" use a pile of non-free fonts (with one free font thrown in at the end as a sop). Is this really the direction we want to go, considering that in many other areas we prefer to use free software whenever we can?
This is completly a non-issue. CSS Font stacks merely *refer* to a font already installed (and paid for) on a reader's computer. There are no legal issues arising form this whatsoever.
When it comes to selecting fonts, it is natural in web design to first refer to the most commonly installed fonts available. If you were to specify only free fonts, they would have no effect on the 99% of our reader's computers, because they don't have those font installed to begin with. In short, preferring free fonts in a font stack is utterly pointless.
This would be different if we were to *distribute* these fonts, i.e in the form of webfonts. In that case we are indeed restriceted to free fonts. And as far as I know, all the webfonts we use are free.